This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 199.10 085.3, filed Mar. 8, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a vehicle seat having a backrest which can be tilted forward into an alternate position for facilitating the entry and the exit of passengers. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the vehicle seat has a brackrest which can be titled forward about a swivelling axis displaced toward the front with respect to the backrest into an alternate position for facilitating the entry and the exit, the backrest being fixed in its tilted-back end position by way of latching devices arranged on both sides on a seat cushion part, after which the latching devices can be synchronously unlocked in a remote-controlled manner by a common actuating element, and, for the swivel bearing and for the support of the backrest with respect to the seat cushion part, lateral support fittings being provided, on which, at a distance behind the forward swivelling axis, a hinge is arranged for adjusting the inclination of the backrest.
A vehicle seat of this type known from German Patent Document DE 25 14 819 A1 has a holding bolt at a distance behind the swivelling axis on both sides on the seat cushion part. When the backrest is tilted back, a locking hook, which is assigned to the holding bolt, reaches behind the holding bolt, the locking hook being linked to the pertaining support fitting and being controlled with respect to its movements by means of a locking and unlocking mechanism. Since a considerable installation space is required for the locking and unlocking mechanism, the support fittings are designed in a correspondingly large size. Because of the related high weight of the support fittings and because of the resulting high arrangement of the hinge, which may impair the sitting comfort, this may be undesirable.
It is an object of the invention to further develop a vehicle seat having a backrest which can be tilted forward into an alternate position for facilitating the entry and exit such that, while the supporting function is reliable, its support fittings can have more favorable dimensions.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by means of a vehicle seat having a backrest which can be tilted forward about a swivelling axis displaced toward the front with respect to the backrest into an alternate position for facilitating the entry and the exit, the backrest being fixed in its tilted-back end position by way of latching devices arranged on both sides on a seat cushion part, after which the latching devices can be synchronously unlocked in a remote-controlled manner by a common actuating element, and, for the swivel bearing and for the support of the backrest with respect to the seat cushion part, lateral support fittings being provided, on which, at a distance behind the forward swivelling axis, a hinge is arranged for adjusting the inclination of the backrest, wherein the support fittings each have a rearward-projecting holding leg which ends at a distance behind the assigned hinge of the backrest, the free leg end of the holding leg in the tilted-back end position of the backrest being lockable on the seat cushion part.
Advantageous embodiments of the vehicle seat according to the invention with expedient further developments of the invention are described below and in the claims.
Since the vehicle seat is locked on rearward-projecting, free leg ends of its holding legs, the hinge of the backrest can be arranged with fewer problems in a lower position displaced with respect to the supporting points of the support fittings.
In addition, the free leg ends can be constructed as bolt-like locking devices, whereby the movable parts of the locking arrangement can advantageously be arranged on the seat cushion part. As a result, when the backrest is locked, more favorable lever conditions will occur on the support fittings and thus the suitability for integral seats will be improved, in the case of which also the belt forces occurring particularly in the event of front collisions of the vehicle must be absorbed by the backrest or by the support fittings.
A particularly favorable distribution of the forces exercised by way of the backrest on the support fittings is obtained if the respective supporting point is situated in the area of the holding arm at a distance behind the hinge.
The leg ends can be locked in a particularly effective and reliable manner by means of U-shaped bows which are rotatably disposed on the seat frame of the seat cushion part. It is understood that, as the result, the leg end of the assigned holding arm may also be thickened in an adaptation to the larger clear bow cross-section.
In order to permit, in the case of an integral seat, in a simple manner, an adaptation of the rotary latch stability to the loads onto the laterally arranged support fittings of the seat which differ in the event of collisions, the U-shaped bow has a wider construction on the side of the belt anchoring point than on the opposite side.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.